Capturing the Moment

  If you are looking for a wonderful scuba dive, that you can do from shore on Maui, then look no further than the old Mala Pier. The colors underwater are out of this world, and the turtles and sharks are usually in plentiful supply. I've snorkeled here and dove here many times, and it never gets old. In fact, it is one of the 'must-see' places I take people to when they visit me here in Maui. Today I left the wide angle camera at home. I've taken lots of turtle and shark pictures here before. I was on the hunt for some of the more secretive animals. I was on a treasure hunt for things like nudibranchs, eels, frogfish, and whatever else I could find hiding amongst the corals and wreckage. Using a special macro lens on my Canon 5d, I was able to get in close, add flash, and bring out the true color of all of the marine life. Take a look at some of these photos below and see if you agree with me that this might just be the 'Most Colorful Dive on Maui!" A gloomy ...

  In a previous post I talked about the 'Big 3' scuba dives in Maui. These three are Molokini Crater , Cathedrals , and Mokuhooniki Rock for hammerheads. I got the chance recently to revisit one of the Big 3, Molokini for some good old fashioned exploration of the deep time. The crater rises strait up from the submerged slope of Haleakala Volcano 300 ft down. This easy access to depth, along with some of the clearest water in Hawaii provides a rare opportunity here in Maui where shallow shore dives are more the norm. Early morning dive at Molokini   My buddies Jack and Lucy from Maui Dive Shop joined me on their day off to do some fun diving of their own. Our first dive was on Reef's End. This is one point of the halfmoon shaped crater which gradually slopes down to the abyss. Schools of pyramid butterflyfish and garden eels greeted us about 60 ft down, then a school of grey reef sharks found us around 120 ft down. The sharks stayed a little too deep to get good pi...

White bumped nudibranch   It had been some time since Heidi and I had been nudibranch hunting in our old diving grounds on Maui. The weather tried to foil us by flooding Kihei with late season downpours and sending surf from the south, but we still managed to find more species of nudibranchs on a few dives than most dive instructors working in Maui see all year. It's all about where you look, and it's not always where you would think to look. Thecacera pacifica, or pokemon guy   We spotted some of our old favorites like imperial nudibranchs, white bump nudibranchs, and gloomy nudibranchs. We were also pleasantly surprised to see some of the rarer species like our little orange nudi that we affectionately call the 'orange pokemon guy.' Tambja morosa with green gills The green gilled new-comer   We found quite a few gloomy nudibranchs ( tambja morosa ) at our secret nudi dive spot but we did notice a much higher percentage with greenish gills than o...

Jess: Local Knowledge Entry at Koloa Landing, Kauai    For shore diving the south side of Kauai there is one solid option that will satisfy beginners and experts alike.The name of the place is Koloa Landing. Located in between the resorts of Poipu and the famous blow hole, Koloa Landing provides an easy boat ramp access and gravel parking lot right next to the water. My friend Jess has been working as a dive instructor in Kauai so knows the waters pretty well. She agreed to take me out for a crepuscular/night dive to see what kinds of interesting creatures we could find. Potter's Angelfish   After a very easy entry and a short kick out we submerged to a find a large school of blue stripe snapper. Large boulders were strewn about the site with some nice looking coral sporadically among them. It was in and among the coral and crevices that we wanted to search for the rarer species. Leaf Scorpionfish Jeweled Anemone Crab   And fine them we did....